Exemplary embodiments relate generally to communications networks and, more particularly, to methods, systems, and computer program products for automatically managing pools of IP addresses.
Communications networks are frequently employed to provide users with access to the public Internet, a private Intranet, or both. Typically, a user accesses the Internet or Intranet by activating a network interface operably coupled to the communications network. In the case of broadband Internet access, this network interface may take the form of a cable modem, DSL (digital subscriber link) modem, wireless transceiver, or the like. Activation of the network interface is detected by an Internet service provider operably coupled to the communications network. However, in order to provide Internet access to the user, the service provider must first assign an IP address to the user. The assignment may be either static or dynamic. Static assignments are those assignments that have pre-configured IP addresses on a network interface (e.g. those of the customer equipment or ISP network equipment interfaces). However, for most residential customers, IP addresses are assigned dynamically. The assigned IP address is obtained from an IP pool that includes a plurality of IP addresses. The Internet service provider's network equipment sends the assigned IP address to the user's network interface, whereupon the customer's network interface is now able to access the Internet using the assigned IP address. At present, the ISP must manually create the IP pools on their equipment for dynamic assignment to customer equipment. A network administrator specifies desired starting and ending IP addresses for one or more IP pools per network equipment by typing the appropriate commands into a communications network interface device. Although various vendor management systems have been developed to facilitate the creation of IP pools, these systems nonetheless require manual entry of starting and ending IP addresses. The addresses are entered using a GUI interface, and then conveyed to the communications network. Irrespective of whether or not a vendor management system is employed, problems may arise if the created IP pool does not contain a sufficient number of IP addresses. If all available IP addresses are already assigned to existing users, then new users will be denied access. On the other hand, it is wasteful and inefficient to create one or more large IP pools if most of the IP addresses included therein will never be utilized. Public IP space is a scarce resource that needs to be requested from a public entity, which, in North America, is the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN). When users request IP pools that remain underutilized, this approach deprives others of access. However, even with the best of intentions, it is not always possible to accurately project future demand for IP addresses. Manual creation of IP pools is an iterative process involving a certain amount of trial and error. On occasion, a user may be deprived of access to the Internet due to inaccurate projections in the number of new IP addresses required. What is needed is a method for automatically creating additional IP pools in response to user demand such that users are not deprived of Internet access, and such that a finite amount of IP space is utilized in an efficient manner.